Calling all Royal Navy River-class frigate fans

[Graham Boak]

Thanks for the suggestions for improvements to the hull. I was wondering about the hedgehog, but I think it is the undifferentiated rectangular block in A position. I shall have to get the Lavery book, as otherwise I can't identify a need for some of the armament options. Three twin 4in? Never mind, I can always use them elsewhere, though I recently bought some WEM ones..

[graham]

Yes I've done a couple of them quite pleased with them when finished they look "right" still to do my Aussie versions a few more 20mm would help
Must admit I am horrified by the cost that you need to pay to get then in to to the UK by post, the total value of my order (OK I just had to have Aoshima 1/350 Kinu and a couple of Monochomes Akizuki) came to over A$300 and never a peep out customs or post office

Graham

[dick]

Bob,

Re my last, and HMS Ballinderry, Ettrick, Ness, Nith, Test, Teviot, and Waveney too.

I do not have photos of every River Class frigate by any means but going through my collection so far I have found that all those fitted with minesweeping gear also have A18, whereas all those without minesweeping gear do not have A18.

Hope it helps.

[graham]

HMS Bann has it the kits builds up exatly like this photo taken from the Flower Class wb site


Graham Murdoch

[graham]

Only half the photos appears to viewable on the site you need to save it to see the whole photo

[Graham Boak]

Got the Lavery book today, and have to say that it is excellent, a wonderful read - except that it is almost no help at all in covering the variations in the (RN) ships as built and operated. The key query is finding ships with as few single Oerlikons as the kit provides. I presume the key work will be Atlantic Escorts D K Brown, as mentioned on the first page? Does this cover the Far Eastern fit?

[dick]

Graham,

Brown says "Because of a shortage of guns, most carried only four Oerlikons".

Not sure Brown will help you that much with the multiplicity of variations. I think you need to work from pictures of the particular ship you wish to model. See my pm to you,

Best wishes.

[Graham Boak]

I see that comment elsewhere, but the photos all seem to show additional armament. Plus the sketches in AR's camouflage books do so too. Being from the North-East, I'm fairly happy with Jed in WA colours, but that would use up all the singles in both kits. I think one kit in the minesweeper configuration, and the other in long range escort would do for starters, leaving Australian, Canadian etc for another time.

I haven't found any photos in the latewar standard scheme, those with the latewar fit (40mm Bofors aft) seem to be all in postwar monotone.

[dick]

For similar geographical reasons, I am focusing on Exe, Fal and Helford. None of these seem to have more than 4 light AA positions in these photos, although its hard to be sure in the case of Helford given the poor quality of the photo. (Also she just might have twin 20mm in the aft positions.)

Overall I have photos of 32 RN Rivers. These show only 4 Rivers with more than the 4 light AA armament positions provided in the kit. One of these happens to be Jed, and another is another �northerner� � Wear.

I wonder if additional light AA armament may have been particularly fitted on those Rivers likely to face aerial threats eg on Russian convoy runs but not on those on mid and South Atlantic duties. The year may also have had a bearing on things too. More research needed!

[Graham Boak]

I'm increasingly drawn to chronology as an explanation: initial fit of four but made up later. I have caught a reference to that for Jed and others - possibly Wear too. The only early Admiralty Light scheme I have is Waveney (I think there's at least one more around, but I forget which....) from Raven vol 2, but he shows more than four guns which may not be consistent. The upgunned ones would then be for the Far East, but in which case Jed's Western Approaches camouflage doesn't seem appropriate. Nadder is shown in plans (Graveney) with only the bow gun marked as not fitted, but Raven shows it with only four.

I'm not sure about the Russian link - I thought the Rivers were not used because of their weak AA (regardless of the number of 20mm).

[dick]

Graham,

Having done a bit of digging around Hague's convoy database, it does seem that Rivers were used on Russian convoys - but not very much!

JW57 - Strule; RA 59 - Waskesiu; JW61A Nene; JW62 & return RA 62 - Monnow, Nene, St John, Tavy.

There may be more. I have not done a thorough search of the Canadians.

Re fits and camouflage schemes, see my pm to you.

Best wishes.

[Talisker]

Hi River class fans,

I need some help with the colours used on HMCS New Waterford,
there's a very nice photo on the flowerclassforum
I want to build one of my Seals Models kits to depict HMCS New Waterford in this schema.

Thanks

Stefan

[whytewolf]

Hey guys, I just picked up a pair of these beauties from HLJ, but sadly between the all-Japanese instructions and my having served in the Army--meaning my knowledge of naval weapons is precisely zero--I'm having a hard time determining what parts on the sprue are which weapons. I'm trying to fit out one of the first fifteen RCN Rivers (the HMCS Charlottetown) and have no idea what parts to use to represent its weapon load-out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Sean

[Matelot]

Hi Sean:

Charlottetown was one of the 1942-43 batch of 33 ships. She retained the pendant number, K244, of the Corvette Charlottetown lost in September 42. Although some ships of this group were fitted with single 4" guns and some even had single 20mm when first built, she was not one of them.
She was built with 1 4" HA/LA QF gun forward, 1 12-pdr aft, 4 twin 20" mounts, Hedgehog, 4 DC throwers, 2 DC traps (rails) and carried up to 200 DC's.

You might want to get ahold of a book entitle "Frigate of the RCN 1943-1974" by Ken Macpherson, hopefully your local library has a copy.

Tom

[Matelot]

Sean:

You will pictures of all the weapons mentioned in my previous on the web site, even 12 pdr

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/systems/guns/

Tom

[dick]

I think what Matelot meant to say was "She was built with 1 twin 4" HA/LA QF gun forward....."

Here she is in June 1944.

[Matelot]

Thanks Dick, that is what I meant to say. Starting to suffer from "Oldstimers" so what I mean to say and what I actually say aren't always the same!

[roy allen]

I would like to convert my kit to a Colony class as HMS Caicos, the only problem is i can only find one picture of her and that does not help in showing the modifications to the aft part of the focsl'e deck.
Any ideas or pointers would be much appreciated


Roy

[Admhawk]

Hi River class fans,

I need some help with the colours used on HMCS New Waterford,
there's a very nice photo on the flowerclassforum
I want to build one of my Seals Models kits to depict HMCS New Waterford in this schema.

Thanks

Stefan

On page 50 of Warship Perspectives RN camo Vol 3, it shows a similar pattern with colours called out as G10(darkest), B30 (next darkest), G45 and B55 (lightest)

That would make the black band/blob G10 and the area under the line B30. The drawing shows the rest of the hull as G45 and the superstructure B55. The photo shows a patch of B30 on the aft hull area and the G10 going up over B turret. The drawing doesn't show this(not surprising as ships exercised a bit of Independence with their painting). The photo also looks like the hull and the superstructure are the same colour. I think G45 and B55 are almost identical on the Snyder and Short colour chips, so this may be why they don't appear different in the photo, but others might disagree.

HTH's
Darren

[whytewolf]

Sean:

You will pictures of all the weapons mentioned in my previous on the web site, even 12 pdr

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/systems/guns/

Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the help, the link is great!

Cheers,

Sean